This invention relates to the art of winding yarn on spinning machines, twisting machines and the like, and more specifically to apparatus for controlling the extent of yarn balloons as yarn passes from delivery rolls to bobbins mounted on rotating spindles to be wound thereon and form a package through the medium of a ring and traveler device.
For convenience, the invention will be described as being mounted on a spinning machine, although the term "spinning machine" is to be considered throughout the specification and claims a generic term to include other winding machines, such as twisting machines, doubling machines, and any other machines in which yarn or thread forms a balloon around and in spaced relation to a yarn package as the yarn is directed to or withdrawn from the package.
In the operation of certain types of spinning machines, yarn is directed from a source to each of a plurality of tubes or bobbins mounted on rotating spindles by means of corresponding rings and travelers mounted on a vertically traversing ring rail. The yarn is directed to the traveler through suitable guides spaced above corresponding spindles. The further the ring rail is away from the yarn guide, the greater the ballooning of the yarn. Also, as the ring rail is traversed relative to the packages being built on the spindles, the median point of greatest ballooning of the yarn continually changes. The yarn balloon whirls will strike against any obstruction it encounters such as, for example, balloons produced by adjacent spindles.
It is known in the prior art to place partitions or separators between the spindles so that the balloon of each spindle is, in effect, housed in an enclosure closed on opposed sides and opened at the front, rear, top, and bottom. The ballooning yarn strikes the separators repeatedly during the building of a package and each time the yarn strikes a separator the impact of the yarn against the separator has an abrasive effect on the yarn. The repeated impacts of the yarn against the separators frequently produces knots, slubs, and other imperfections in the yarn.
Various attempts have been made to control or limit the ballooning of the yarn, including rigid balloon guards mounted on, and in fixed relation to, the ring rail, so as to have the guard move in fixed spaced relation to the ring rail as it traverses to build the yarn package. See, for example, Pat. No. 1,606,056 issued Nov. 9, 1926 to Charles A. Butterworth and Pat. No. 2,081,416 issued May 25, 1937 to Jean Charles Albert Vicq.
Balloon guards have also been used which are movable relative to the ring rail throughout a substantial part of the traverse of the ring rail to build the package. See, for example, Pat. No. 2,865,162 issued Dec. 23, 1958 to Orville L Hope and Pat. No. 2,773,345 issued Dec. 11, 1956 to Walter W Leutert. The prior art balloon guards which are movable relative to the ring rail have been unsatisfactory because they have required complicated and expensive supporting and operational devices.